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Readers' Almanac: May 10, 2017

Wed, 05/10/2017 - 2:52pm

This day in 1999 was a sad day for children of all ages worldwide: Shel Silverstein died at age 67. He's best known as an author of poetry for children (most famously Where the Sidewalk Ends), but he was also a singer-songwriter, cartoonist and profilic playwright.

The author of Silverstein's New York Timesobituary called his children's poems "goofy, gross and macabre yet always enchanting" and compared them to the work of Dr. Seuss and A.A. Milne.

At the website of the Academy of American Poets you can read Silverstein's charmingly irascible "Mr. Grumpledump's Song."